Humboldt Penguins in Chile Face Extinction

From the Huffington Post....

Invading rats with bodies up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) long have begun eating eggs and chicks, and some experts fear that unless the rats are eradicated, they could tip the Humboldt penguin toward extinction.

The Age of Mass Extinction

Sorry to be a downer, but here's an article that appeared in the Huffington Post. It's basically an interview with University of Washington Professor Peter Ward, whose book the End of Evolution I read over a decade ago. It discussed the mass extinction going on at the time. Unfortunately, nothing has changed.

Another Bird Species Goes Extinct

This time, it's the Alaotra grebe from Madagascar, according to the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds, by BirdLife International.

The report has bad news for bird species all around, identifying 12.5 percent as being endangered.

Asian Demand for Ivory Pushing Elephants to Extinction

Be warned. Very upsetting article.

New Book Looks at Humanity's Role in the Next Extinction

Another book I want to read! I'm a glutton for depressing punishment!

Nevertheless the subject of eradicated species has become publishing hot property after a bidding battle in the US saw Henry Holt, a publisher, beat its rivals to buy The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert last week. According to the New York Times, a "mid-six-figure advance" has now been agreed between writer and publisher.

"The idea of mass extinctions as the next step after talking about the perils of global warming is the most crucial subject," said Gillian Blake of Holt, after completing the deal with Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker on environmental issues. Her last book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, outlined evidence collated from sites across the planet showing how global warming is changing the world. The book was well reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Observer praising it as "a superbly crafted, diligently compressed vision of a world spiralling towards destruction".

Now, Kolbert is to focus on humanity's impact on the animal world, and in particular will look at the species that are today being rendered extinct by men and women. Scientists say the number of species being lost is approaching levels reached during five pivotal extinction events that have swept the planet over the past 600 million years. Among these catastrophes was the event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Kolbert's task will to be show whether or not humanity – with its spiralling population, widespread habitat destruction, over-fishing and global warming – is rivalling these.

Tigers To Go Extinct in 15 Years? Thanks China!

It's not only China, but all Asian countries that are playing a major role in reducing this beautiful animal's number. As this article points out, tigers are worth more dead than alive if you use humanity's flawed accounting system.

Extinct Bird Found Before Being Eaten

Figures. A precious thing, possibly the last of its kind, enjoyed for a few minutes by a human being, then destroyed by another.

A rare quail from the Philippines was photographed for the first time before being sold as food at a poultry market, experts say.

Found only on the island of Luzon, Worcester's buttonquail was known solely through drawings based on dated museum specimens collected several decades ago.

Scientists had suspected the species—listed as "data deficient" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 2008 Red List—was extinct.

1 in 4 Species Face Extinction Threat

This sucks.

"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," the team led by Jan Schipper of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, concluded.

"We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining," the researchers said in a report to be published Friday in the journal Science. The findings were being released Monday at the IUCN meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

Well, I Have Something

Bringing back extinct species. Scientists keep saying they can do it. Should they?

The latest example is an extinct Galapagos tortoise species.

I just don't feel it's right, as great as it would be to correct the mistakes we've made. It cheapens life and makes the original seem replaceable.

What next? Mass-production of blue dodos? Designer velociraptors?

Remember Jurassic Park?

Another Mass Extinction on the Way?

I can't believe we are still debating this.

In an article published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UC Berkeley researchers argue that substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet.

Of course, as Ron my coworker and John Ashcroft groupie says, clearly if they can't compete with humans, then they should go extinct!